The 2013 season is here and we wanted to work closely with college programs to bring a part of the excitement to you. Throughout the 2013 season we will highlight lacrosse programs on our space for all of our readers to follow. Player blogs serve as a unique outlet for programs to showcase their season as it develops, plus highlight everything they have to offer a student-athlete. In contrast, families and fans get a glimpse into the program’s athletic and academic regimen.

On Friday afternoon, we all headed over to the varsity house to have our typical walk through practice and brush up on our schemes and game plan before heading up to Holy Cross for our second Patriot League game. Like I briefly mentioned last week, the 2013 season was at a crossroads, as Robert Frost once said: “There were two routes possible for us, and it was imperative that we chose the right one.” Our typical Friday practice consists of: Joke of the Day, followed by FFOTS (short for full field over the shoulder-a drill we do), box shooting for the O and footwork for the D, full field clearing, then running through our offensive and defensive sets. However, this time was much different. Coach felt it was necessary to switch things up a bit, because what we were doing wasn’t working too well. After a unique Friday practice that went well, we embarked on the bus to Holy Cross. A huge shout out to my man 43 (Chris Rinaldi), as he really made a big play by bringing a plethora of classic movies. I know I got after him a couple of weeks ago for a poor movie choice, and he made up for it in a big way. We watched Law Abiding Citizen first, and then stopped for a team meal at Nick’s, which was founded by none other than the Director or Quality Control, Coach Ese (Coach Cassese’s father). Nick’s was a gem of a dinner spot, but I’m not going to lie. It definitely seemed skeptical from the outside but that just proves the fact that you can’t judge a book by its cover.

We got up to Holy Cross at around 11:00pm and Coach was handing out the room assignments. I had my fingers crossed that I got to room with Coach Comp again, as last time he proved to be my good luck charm as we got the win over Army and I played well. I was pleading for Coach Cassese to let me room with Coach Comp again, and it seemed that way until Dylan O’Shaughnessy did not make the trip due to illness. Therefore, I could room with Sam Cunard (who Dylan was supposed to room with), but after continuous begging to Coach Comp, he let me room with him. We watched a movie then called it a night.

Everyone woke up and met for breakfast at 10:30 AM and had some solid fake eggs as well as cereal. We watched a little more film as a team and then embarked to Holy Cross for our game at 3. There is something unique about playing at Holy Cross that makes it difficult to play there. No matter how good they are, you know it’s going to be a tough game. Couple that with the fact that they have a very talented team this year and were coming off their first win over Navy in school history, we knew we would have our work cut out for us. Mother Nature was not on either team’s side either, as it was 30 degrees and 20 mph winds that made it feel like 20 degrees.

The game started off somewhat slowly and was delayed in the first quarter for 10 minutes as the scoreboard went out. Although this was definitely a vibe kill, it brought back memories of the power outage in the Super Bowl when my hometown Ravens brought it home, so I got to gloat about that for a couple of minutes which was nice. The game resumed and we were down 2-1 at the end of the first quarter and knew it was going to be a dog fight. At half time, we regained the lead 4-3 and Coach reminded us that we really needed this one and to come out firing in the 3rd quarter. We did this, inspired by an unbelievable Caused Turnover-BigHit-GroundBall-PenaltyDrawn sequence by the one and only Ty “Jadeveon Clowney” Souders. I know I haven’t mentioned Ty much in this blog, but I can’t think of a kid I respect more for how hard he works on the field and just how great of a kid he is. Even though he is in the grade below me, I look up to him more than anyone on the team. Back to the game, we answered Coach’s challenge and were up 7-5 at the end of the 3rd. He told us that all we had to do was win the 4th quarter, which we did 1-0, to secure a huge 8-5 victory. Ty, Mike Noone, and Matt Poillion anchored the defense to yet another ridiculous performance, holding Holy Cross to 5 goals and only one 6 on 6 goal, which is just absurd. It was a balanced performance on offense as many people got involved. Kurt “Rabbit” Kanaus had a huge snip from outside that definitely deserved a mention. My ritual of rooming with Coach Comp held true again, as we got another win and yours truly had a decent outing on the day.

After the game, we met the parents for the tailgate and had a fantastic meal. I can’t thank the parents enough for how much they do for us, and how well they treat us. A special shout out to Mrs. Snyder, the head of the parents club, for doing such a great job. She took over for my favorite lady in the world (my mother), and hasn’t missed a beat. After that, we got on the bus to head back for a 5 hour bus ride, which felt a lot better after a W. Also, it was time for Freshman Karaoke, which is an annual tradition everyone loves. The magic behind Freshman Karaoke is that the performers wear noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the noise, rendering them completely tone deaf. There were a couple great performances, especially by Steve Broduer (who did his shirtless) and sang “Who Says” by the beautiful Selena Gomez, as well as Reid Weber who sang “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the Mulan soundtrack- (who had a surprisingly unbelievable voice, officially unseating Harry Lawrence as the most talented signer on the team). Jack “Big Tux” Bogorowski, who is a sophomore transfer from Johns Hopkins, definitely got the award for worst karaoke performance. It’s all good though Big Tux, keep your head up kid. Our manager, Lauren “Mrs. Lin” Farrell had another stellar performance as well. When it was all said and done, everyone kicked back and watched Act of Valor as well as Running Scared.

Our squad got a much-deserved day off on Sunday, which players took advantage of to rest up and study. On Monday, we met for film and put Holy Cross behind us and then crushed the weight room. On Tuesday, we had a classic Mountain Hawk work day. With so many midweek games, we hadn’t had many chances to get after it during practice. With just a game on Saturday this week, Coach put together a really tough practice. Tensions were high and there was some scrapping, but we embraced it and had a great day. On Wednesday, we toned it back but still had another great day of practice none the less. I really feel like our team is starting to gel at the right time, which is nice to see. We have a very tough Navy opponent coming up on Saturday and yet another important league game looming. The only thing on our mind this week is going 1-0 vs. Navy. That’s all this week. One Love and Happy Easter to All!